In 2016, NASCAR awarded 36 charters, one for each full-time Cup Series team at the time. Think of these like NFL franchise licenses. Each one guaranteed a starting spot in every race and a fixed cut of TV money. For the first time, teams had an asset they actually owned.
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Teams that were struggling sold theirs off quickly. The going price was around $2 million. JR Motorsports watched it all and decided to pass. Ten years later, Kelley Earnhardt Miller, co-owner of JRM alongside Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Rick Hendrick, sat down with journalist Jeff Gluck and said what feels pretty obvious now.
“So yeah, you look back at those situations and think, ‘What an idiot we were,'” she said.
The biggest reason was simple. The charters were not permanent. NASCAR could take them back. For Kelley Earnhardt, spending millions on something NASCAR could revoke made no sense as an investment.
“My apprehension about the charter system the entire time was the fact that they weren’t permanent,” she explained. “I just couldn’t wrap my head around making that kind of investment into something that didn’t have permanency.”
On top of that, $2 million looked steep for an unproven system. Nobody knew if charters would hold their value. Plus, JRM was already making money in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. There was no real financial need to take such a big risk.
There was also a structural wall. Rick Hendrick already ran four full-time Cup cars under Hendrick Motorsports. NASCAR caps any single owner at four Cup entries. For JRM to race Cup full-time, Rick Hendrick would have had to leave his own team. That was impossible. So, JRM stayed in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. Meanwhile, the price of those $2 million charters kept climbing.
What Kelley Earnhardt’s decision costs now
Today, a NASCAR charter is worth over $40 million. In late 2025, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports filed a massive antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR. They fought over unfair revenue splits. They ended up settling in December 2025, right in the middle of the trial.
That settlement changed everything. NASCAR agreed to make the charters permanent, just like Kelley Earnhardt wanted back in 2016. Every major team signed the new agreements before the 2026 season. What JRM once thought was a bad deal is now as valuable as owning an NFL or NBA team.
For JRM, the door is effectively shut. Kelley confirmed in 2026 that buying in now is impossible as the price is too high. Dale Jr. feels the same way. According to him, spending nine figures on a charter would put his children’s inheritance at risk
The only way JRM makes it to the Cup Series now is if a billionaire puts in the money. They did get one shot at the big leagues. Justin Allgaier ran the 2025 Daytona 500 as an open entry and finished ninth. Without a charter, that is where it stays, a one-off.
A $2 million decision in 2016 turned into a massive wall by 2026. Kelley Earnhardt Miller knows the cost of that choice better than anyone.